O professor universitário iniciante: desafios e necessidades no cotidiano da docência

Abstract

The present study sought to know the words of lecturers about their early career in a tertiary public educational institution. The theoretical methodological path is based on a qualitative approach, through semi-structured interviews. The research subjects involved eleven teachers from different areas, with up to three years of tutoring experience in universities. The analysis of the data was based on the principles of content analysis and following the guidelines of the categorization technique. The theoretical framework was developed from discussions and studies on university lectures, teacher knowledge and reflexive practice as essential components for professional teacher development. The importance of this study is justified in the need to understand the processes that permeate the insertion of the beginner-lecturer in the university context and contribute to the corpus of knowledge related to the universities tutor’s professional development. The results of the research indicate that: for the majority of professors interviewed, the interest in research had a great influence on the choice of profession; family influence, autonomy and flexibility of the teaching profession were also pointed out as factors that influenced their choices. The research subjects' teaching style is characterized by the repetition or negation of the models experienced by them and loaded with affective memories; its main difficulties are related to didactic-pedagogical issues and impasses in the teacher-student relationship; They are frustrated by the lack of institutional support for research development and recognize the need for pedagogical training that includes new ways of teaching and learning that contribute to the improvement of their practices in the lectures halls and to arouse the interest of their students. The research points to the need for the reception and monitoring of beginner teachers and professional development training programs for university lecturers.